The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-03-07
AMERICAN ETCHERS.
A Distinguished French Artist Tells
What Ho Thinks or Them-The
Dangers an Art Run When II

What Ho Thinks or Them-The
Dangers an Art Run When II
Enters Into Commerce.
At the time OF the visit OF the French
delegation to this country last autumn
to witness the unwilling OF the Bar
tholdi statute of Liberty tho French
journal II Art invited M, Paul Rajon,
the eminent etcher, who is also we'll
known as painter by his contribu-
tions to the salon to represent it, says
The NeW York ToSt. Nj. Rajon ac-
cepted with pleasure. his original in
tention being to remain about three
weeks. Instead of this, he has been
here three months, and is enabled to
sail for home by the Bretague to-day
only under promise OF returning next
September to complete the many
COMMISSIONS which he has accepted,
M. Rajon is middle-aged, with the
face of an artist and the courteous
vivacity of Frcnchman. 1t was pure
ly by accident that he, while
student in painting at the Ecoie deS
BedaG ArtS, became accidentally ac-
quainted with etching some twenty-five
years ago; it was then an art but little
used in Paris, and regarded more as an
amateur amusement than as serious
work. Rajon, however, soon found
large possibilities in it, and he grew up
artistically as an etcher with many
other workers in the same field who
have likewise become noted for the ex-
cellence of their plates. Nowhere but
in Paris can such exquisite work for
book illustrations be done as may be
found in the art works issued there and
in the art periodicals such as The Ga
zette and Il drt.
To representative of The EUening
Post Mr.. Rajon said yes erday; Il have
not had an opportunity to visit any of
your art schools in which etching is
regularly taught. suppose that here,
as in Paris, it is rather an art for the
mature workman than the tyro. What
/ have seen of the etching done in the
studios of Now York, Boston and Bal
timore impresses me far more with the
value of the material than with the ex-
pertness of the etchcr; the ideas are Of
ten excellent, but the technical skill,
the grasp of the art values OF black and
white, is weak. Etching, so far as the
mere mechanical part of the affair is
concerned, is very easy. 1t is an art
so plant so expressive, revealing with
such faithfulness the qualities of the
drawing and the feeling of the person
who employs it, that when you see side
by side proofs from the hands of Van
Dyck. Meissonier, and Gerome you are
struck at once by the difference be-
tween them, the characteristic manner
of painting of each of these artists being
perfectly revealed. And yet no form
of art lends itself more readily to de-
ception, to mere superiiciality, than
etching, for the very reason of its in
dependence of rule. How many etch-
ings do we see which are nothing but
mass of scratches, without accent,
without the decisive line which cx-
presses form or reveals purpose. To
be sure, to the beginner an etching APP
pears to be chiefly mass of scratches,
only so many lines crossing and re-
crossing one another. Is not this the
explanation of the many feeble plates
which are published nowadays, and
which are only etchings because they
are etched?
"The danger which your American ar
lists who attempt etching are running is
due largely to the demands of the pub
fishers OF pictures and prints, who are
tempting you to put etching to use
for which it is wholly unfit. Look at
the masterpieces in this field of art and
you will find that they are mostly
small. Sometimes large head is done,
but only when 1t offers an opportunity
for q vast number of lines and accents,
such head as that of Darwin, or that
of your Lincoln, in which every square
inch may be said to have character
Of its own. But il you attempt to etch
the head of one Of Raphaers Madonnas
you will find how utterly unsuited this
wonderful art is to the purpose. When
we come to landscapes, etching is al
most wholly untitled for large plates;
but your publishers all say: We can